


Work Song

by JE_Talveran



Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Dancing Prompt, F/F, TImeless-Verse, They can be happy!, non-canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 12:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17141978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JE_Talveran/pseuds/JE_Talveran
Summary: Despite everything, Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas had much in common; a lovely singing voice and a love of song were just two of them.Set in the Timeless!Verse somewhere in Chapter 11.





	Work Song

**Author's Note:**

> A cute ficlet to make up for the horrible slow-burn. Happy Holidays everyone.

Jaina arrived to their temporary encampment with her arms full of firewood and her staff floating easily in the air behind her, and her journal charmed to fly just at the edge of her vision, the quill scribbling as she worked a new theory aloud. They’d been here long enough that the small fire they’d used to create their charcoal nubs had become a rather comfortable blaze that required more fuel than the occasional dry twig. 

She blinked up the last step and settled down on the rocky plateau to the amused scoff of her campsite companion. Jaina glanced up at the sound to find the banshee nowhere at ground level but rather perched high on one of the taller stones. Sylvanas had shed her cloak and heavier aspects of her armor and idled there with one leg dangled over the side and her other leg crooked at an angle to support her sketching.

“What?” Jaina asked with a tilt of her head.

Sylvanas’ gaze slid past her, and Jaina followed that look to the rock outcropping she’d just blinked past.

“Oh like I haven’t seen you banshee to avoid an extra ten steps around a tree,” Jaina turned back around so she could deposit her hard-earned stash of firewood somewhere away from the commentary of hypocritical rangers. 

The monolith gleamed in the afternoon sun behind her, but it’d been Sylvanas’ orders that Jaina take a half-day from the spellwork. As she went about busying herself with the minor tasks of camp upkeep, she found herself humming one of the songs that her father and brothers would sing during the long afternoons out on the water. She might not be on the deck of a ship, but the rhythm granted her a measured pace as she stacked her hard-won firewood so it wouldn’t topple. 

_“Oh, we’d be alright if the wind was in our sails,”_ Jaina went from humming towards proper singing, turning to take her turn at skinning and preparing the rabbits caught earlier in the morning for dinner. 

She heard Sylvanas leap from the stone plinth and come up behind her. Jaina didn’t pay her any mind - honestly, the past day or so had been rather … pleasant, for lack of a better term, between them. She turned, ready to ask Sylvanas what she wanted to do with the pelts, but found her voice died in her throat when Sylvanas joined in on the chorus as the call-back.

“ _And we’ll roll the old chariot along,”_

_“We’ll ro-o-oll the old chariot along,”_

Jaina stumbled a moment as she adjusted to Sylvanas’ counterpoint melody. She was surprised that Sylvanas would know such a work song, but right now as Sylvanas carried the lower notes, Jaina wasn’t going to ask. 

_“Well a night on the town wouldn’t do us any harm,”_

_“A night on the town wouldn’t do us any harm,”_

Sylvanas offered up a hand, and Jaina took it. The chill between their skin was nothing compared to the quiet warmth the melody set over Jaina. She quirked a challenging brow as she was brought to her feet, and as she stepped into the first refrains of a seaside dance, Sylvanas was just a step behind. 

As they sang through the verses, the stress melted from Jaina’s shoulders. They spun around each other, and Jaina couldn’t help it as laughter bubbled through the chorus. Right now, they were two women who’d found a way to ignore the world. The worry of discovery, of failures past and present, and the differences between them seemed meaningless as they circled one another, palms pressed lightly together before they dipped down into a complex three-step that nearly had them tumble into the fire as both of them attempted to take the lead.

“ _And another pint of ale wouldn’t do us any harm,”_

_“Another pint of ale might do you some harm,”_

Jaina stuck her tongue out as Sylvanas drawled her lyrical adjustment. 

As the song rolled to its conclusion, so did their impromptu dance. As the last notes warbled away, Sylvanas twirled Jaina one final time and then released her with a gentle laugh. Jaina two-stepped backward and offered a thankful bow before she plopped down on one of the draped out cloaks.

“You have a lovely singing voice,” Jaina said instead of questioning how Sylvanas knew sea shanties.

“My father was a naval captain, though he was long retired by the time I was born,” Sylvanas answered the question even without it being asked. She sat opposite of Jaina and took the pelts that had been set aside. “All of the Windrunner siblings inherited his love for music and his wanderlust.”

“And the sea shanties?”

“I may have had to escort a few merchant vessels over my career,” Sylvanas admitted. “Though we had the treaties with the human kingdoms and the dwarves beyond that, novelty was the strongest addiction for Silvermoon’s nobility so much of a ranger’s urban patrols would bring them through the port towns to ensure everything coming through was properly accounted for.”

Jaina’s brow furrowed with another unspoken question, and Sylvanas’s smile was soft with memories as she continued on; “I might have had to pick up one or several because Alleria was a terrible influence when I was younger.”

Jaina took a moment to try and picture a young Sylvanas dressed in the simple regalia of a newly minted ranger in the middle of a typical port tavern and found it rather hard to believe, but the fact that Sylvanas had so easily picked up the rhythm and call of the song suggested the banshee spoke the truth.

The two of them fell into a comfortable quiet as they worked through the chores to prepare the evening meal. Though, as the sun started its descent into the west, Jaina couldn’t help but smile as Sylvanas began to hum.

**Author's Note:**

> The song they sing is "Roll the Old Chariot"


End file.
